Pace baseball coach named 5A Coach of the Year

Monsignor Edward Pace High baseball coach Tom Duffin was named Florida Dairy Farmers 5A Coach of the Year after leading the Spartans to their seventh state championship last season.

Enroute to the championship, Pace won 14 consecutive games and beat Jacksonville Bolles, 10-4, for the state title, avenging a 2016 final loss and preventing Bolles from winning a third straight crown.

Duffin was named the Miami Herald’s 6A-2A Coach of the Year in 2016.

Pace calls him a true legacy to the Spartans athletic program for 23 years.

Since 1992, the Florida Diary Farmers High School Sports Awards program, which recognizes all 30-FHSAA-sanctioned and recognized sports, has honored more than 5,000 of the state’s top student-athletes and coaches. Past winners have gone on to star at the collegiate and professional levels, and some have even represented their country in the Olympic Games.